'Phase-Changing' Materials Can Make Computers 1000 Times Faster

How many times have you been sitting at your computer for what seems like hours waiting for it to load or boot up? Well, new "phase-changing" materials designed by researchers from the University of Cambridge, can make your computer 1,000 times faster, as well as smaller and more eco-friendly, a new study describes.

Current computer models use silicon, but by replacing it with phase-change materials (PCMs), which are capable of reversibly switching between two structural phases with different electrical states, it could transform the speed of your computer.

"As demand for faster computers continues to increase, we are rapidly reaching the limits of silicon's capabilities," lead study author Stephen Elliott added in a statement.

Specifically, PCMs can switch between a crystalline, conducting phase and a glassy and insulating phase in just billionths of a second.

These materials, described in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, could eventually enable processing speeds between 500 and 1,000 times faster than the current average laptop computer, while using less energy.

These days, most experts increase a computer's power by reducing to size of the devices in order to expand the number of logic devices that they contain. However, this method's full potential is quickly being exhausted. Currently, the smallest logic and memory devices based on silicon are about 20 nanometers in size - approximately 4000 times thinner than a human hair. But PCMs overcome silicon's limitations since they have been shown to function down to about two nanometers.

Also, an alternative for increasing processing speed without raising the number of logic devices is to increase the number of calculations that each device can perform, something that is possible with PCMs.

Eventually, the researchers say, they want to achieve faster PCM switching times - which is already at a mere 10 nanoseconds - to create computers that "are not just faster, but also much 'greener,'" Elliott said.